Lack of sun symptoms. Lack of sunlight is slowly killing us

What does lack of sunlight lead to?

Darkness, eternal twilight and lack of sunlight - is it possible to imagine a happy, fulfilling life in such an environment? After all, sunlight gives us energy, dispels bad thoughts and improves our mood. Among other things, it is also necessary for health, so its role in our lives is much greater than it seems at first glance, and a lack of sunlight can greatly affect well-being and mood.

According to statistics, most people suffer from depressive disorders and feel depressed precisely in autumn and winter, that is, when solar activity decreases and daylight hours become much shorter. Agree that when you wake up at dusk, you really want to stay in bed longer, and when in the middle of the working day it starts to slowly get dark outside the window and you have no strength to work at all. Drowsiness appears, performance decreases, and mood deteriorates.

But as it turns out, a lack of sunlight has a negative impact not only on mood, but also on health and appearance. When exposed to sunlight, our body produces vitamin D, which plays an important role in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus. Thus, sunlight indirectly affects the beauty and strength of our nails, teeth, and hair. In addition, a lack of vitamin D leads to depression and bad mood. This explains the depressive state of many people in winter. What to do about this problem?

The most ideal option is to spend more time outdoors. Especially in summer. Don't sit at home and go out for at least a two-hour walk every day. A two-hour walk is enough to produce the daily requirement of vitamin D. In winter, you should also not miss the opportunity to take a walk. Even if the day is gloomy, the clouds still transmit the sun's ultraviolet rays. In this case, it is not necessary to be directly under direct rays, it is enough just to be in a lit place, since ultraviolet light is reflected from surrounding objects and is evenly scattered in space.

If you do not have the opportunity to spend so much time daily in the sun, or daylight hours in your region are very short, then you can take additional vitamin D as part of vitamin complexes. Such preparations have long been developed by pharmacists and vitamin D can now be consumed in the form of an aqueous solution. Vitamin D3 has better absorption.

In addition to vitamin D, under the influence of sunlight, our bodies produce such an important hormone as serotonin - the hormone of excellent mood. It increases activity, creates a feeling of joy and reduces the risk of developing depression. But in the dark, melanin is produced. This hormone, on the contrary, is responsible for calming the body and promoting sleep. That is why in winter, when it quickly gets dark outside, you always want to go to bed early.

With hormones, the situation is more complicated than with vitamin D. Of course, hormonal complexes for oral administration have also already been developed by pharmacists, but they have a lot of contraindications and are not recommended for frequent use. Therefore, the best way to replenish the lack of serotonin is to regularly take street walks during the daytime.

As you can see, the lack of sunlight does not have a very good effect on the body, so in order to be not only cheerful, but also healthy and beautiful, regularly walk outside in the sun’s rays. The sun will definitely give you beauty and good mood!

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Do you feel tired more often in autumn? Are you having (even more) difficulty getting up in the morning? Are you depressed and often catch colds? When the seasons change, many of us complain of not feeling well. This condition is often explained by... lack of sunlight. We suffer not only from an excess of sunlight, but also from a lack of it. Why?

The sun regulates biochemical processes in the body. The sun is not active enough in the fall, and without ultraviolet radiation the reaction leading to the synthesis of vitamin D is impossible. This vitamin affects the immune system and mood. In addition, vitamin D improves the body's sensitivity to magnesium, a deficiency of which leads to deterioration in physical condition, insomnia and increased anxiety. People who complain of fatigue and autumn depression most often actually suffer from a lack of vitamin D.

What to do? Vitamin D levels can be partially replenished through animal products. “Vitamin D refers to vitamins that can be both synthesized in our body and stored externally. In any case, even if we actively spent the summer in the sun, the reserves may only last until mid-winter. Therefore, vitamin D must come from food, explains Sergei Sergeev, nutritionist, member of the Russian Society of Medical Elementology. – Its main source is fatty fish, more precisely, fish oil, cod liver. Other sources of this vitamin include meat, egg yolk, and milk.” Natalya Fadeeva, endocrinologist-nutritionist, doctor at the MEDEP Center for Family Dietetics, also advises including sea fish with vegetables in your daily diet, as well as foods containing large amounts of calcium: sesame seeds, cheese, cottage cheese, fermented milk products.

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Vitamin D can also be taken in gelatin capsules, but you need to be careful here. “Under no circumstances prescribe the drug to yourself. Recently, cases of hypervitaminosis have become more frequent due to the irrational use of concentrated vitamin solutions. Remember that you can only take such drugs on the recommendation of a doctor,” warns Natalya Fadeeva.

The sun determines the rhythm of our life. Sunlight affects the chemical balance in the body, which affects our behavior. Psychiatrist David Servan-Schreiber wrote: “Light determines most of the vital instincts, such as hunger and sexual appetite, and even the desire to explore everything new and unknown.”* In addition, light reduces the level of the hormone melatonin, which regulates the sleep/wake rhythm. “During the period when darkness and twilight prevail over sunny days, melatonin synthesis may be disrupted, and people often complain of drowsiness, apathy, even depression,” says Natalya Kruglova, nutritionist, member of the National Association of Dietetics and Nutritionists. “The fact is that without sufficient lighting, melatonin is not able to transform into the neurotransmitter - serotonin, which is responsible for many functions in the body, including our mood and activity.”

What to do? To compensate for the lack of serotonin, include in your diet foods rich in tryptophan (the amino acid from which serotonin is formed) - dates, bananas, figs, dairy products, dark chocolate.

The sun is the source of vitality. According to experts, in the fall, about 3–8% of the population of northern countries suffer from so-called seasonal depression. Women are especially susceptible to it. Signs of autumn depression include chronic fatigue and drowsiness, problems concentrating, decreased libido, and hypersomnia.

What to do? The required level of sunlight can be achieved using artificial lighting. There are, for example, full-spectrum lamps - the radiation distribution curve in them is as close as possible to sunlight, as is the color rendering index. To make waking up more comfortable, special dawn simulators have also been created, often built into alarm clocks. They gradually increase brightness over the course of an hour, simulating sunlight and helping to wake up. You can buy these devices in many online stores (for example, wellness-shop.by, nikkenrus.com, etc.). However, you should prepare in advance for the fact that their price will be relatively high.

Another way to combat autumn depression is luminotherapy. Exposure to broad-spectrum artificial light with a power of 10,000 lux**, which imitates natural sunlight, can combat psycho-emotional disorders caused by lack of sun in autumn and winter. The duration of the session depends on the power of the beam flow, but on average it is 20 minutes. “In Russia, unfortunately, this type of therapy is not yet widespread enough. There are several types of lamps that are used for various procedures - for example, the treatment of seasonal affective disorder, cosmetic procedures. However, the duration of the course and the type of lamp must be determined by a specialist, who must also carefully monitor the dynamics of therapy and the patient’s reaction,” says Ekaterina Markova, psychologist, specialist in socio-psychological issues at the MEDSI International Clinic.

Despite the bad weather, don't give up walking! Physical activity helps combat the symptoms of autumn depression. Regular walks in the fresh air for at least one hour a day will help you quickly get in good shape. “On sunny days, you need to stay in the fresh air as much as possible so that the sunlight hits your face. This is especially true for those who received little sunlight in the summer, spending the entire daylight hours indoors at work or at home, advises Natalya Fadeeva. – For those who have seen little sun in the summer and do not have the opportunity to travel to the south in winter, a visit to the solarium once a month for 5 minutes will be sufficient. Before visiting a solarium, it is recommended to consult a doctor, as there may be individual contraindications.”

*David Servan-Schreiber, “Guerir le stress, l"anxiete et la derpession sans medicaments ni psychanalyse,” P., 2003.

** Lux – unit of illumination

Short daylight hours, vitamin C deficiency and lack of sunlight cannot but affect the well-being and condition of the body during the winter cold. Scientists believe that, first of all, such conditions affect changes in hormonal levels.

This occurs due to insufficient production of such important hormone-like substances in the human body, like dopamine (the wakefulness hormone) and melatonin (the sleep hormone).

The problem is that with a lack of sun over a long period of time, an incorrect ratio of these hormones can be observed: Usually in winter, melatonin is produced in large quantities, while dopamine in the body is critically lacking.

This fact largely explains why most people feel sleepy during the winter months. Activity decreases significantly, sleep problems appear, and with a lack of sun, health and general condition noticeably deteriorate. People begin to get tired faster, experience apathy and depressed mood, which are often accompanied by poor performance.

In addition, as researchers suggest, lack of sun has an adverse effect not only on hormonal levels, but also on many other systems of the body. First of all, short daylight hours affect:

internal biorhythms;
natural skin renewal processes;
immunity;
vitamin D production processes that cannot function normally when there is a lack of sunlight;
endocrine system;
cardiovascular system;
reproductive function.

Who suffers most from sun deficiency?

Poor health in winter, associated with hormonal changes and lack of sunlight, is most often observed in the following groups of patients:

elderly people;
children and adolescents;
patients suffering from chronic insomnia;
women of different ages.

Statistics show that the female population suffers more from lack of sun than men. An increase in melatonin production and a deficient state of the wakefulness hormone in the body also affects female sex hormones, so women very often encounter such unpleasant symptoms during the winter season, such as:

frequent dizziness;
headaches and migraines;
fatigue for no reason;
constant state of drowsiness;
increased appetite;
depressed psychological state;
tendency to an apathetic state;
reduced performance;
gaining excess weight.

How to deal with lack of sun?

Scientists advise not to despair and to seriously engage in overcoming this problem, under no circumstances succumbing to an apathetic state. To do this, they suggest following a number of simple rules that can help restore the body, even if the lack of sun has been observed for quite a long time:

Competent organization of the regime. It is necessary to go to bed and wake up at the same time every time so that the body can get used to it and no longer experience the feeling of lack of sleep. Experts advise going to bed 1-2 hours before 12 o'clock at night.
Proper morning rise. To make getting up in the morning much easier, you can use Eleutherococcus, Schisandra or Aralia, taking them in the morning on an empty stomach. Also, during the winter season, if there is a lack of sun, it is recommended to take drugs instead of coffee that can regulate the balance of melatonin and dopamine in the body. For example, drug "Melaxen" helps not only gradually improve overall well-being, but also psychological state.
Searching for sunlight. Try as soon as possible to spend as much time as possible outdoors under the sun as soon as it comes out. Some experts are convinced that the lack of sun can be easily overcome by traveling to warm countries during winter. You can also sign up for phototherapy procedures, which will also help temporarily replace natural sunlight. For this, special white light lamps are used.
Improved mood and increased activity. Herbal preparations, which include St. John's wort, have a beneficial effect on the nervous system and have an antidepressant effect.

Don't forget to take extra vitamins if you don't get enough sunlight. In autumn and winter, vitamin deficiency is especially common in many patients. Revitalize your diet by focusing on orange fruits and red and orange vegetables.

An unconditional factor ensuring the maintenance of life on the planet is sunlight. Despite the fact that the Sun is very far from the Earth (as much as 149 million kilometers!), the surface of our planet receives enough solar energy for life, including infrared and ultraviolet radiation, which the human eye is unable to see. Only half of one billionth of all solar radiation reaches the Earth, however, the Sun is the main source of energy for all natural processes that exist on the globe. The entire biosphere exists only thanks to sunlight.

Research conducted over ten years by scientists from the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle has proven that not only the absence, but simply the lack of sun has a negative effect on humans. Thanks to sunlight, the human body produces serotonin, a hormone responsible for a large number of physical processes. This hormone is also called the joy hormone. Lack of serotonin causes winter depression. When people wake up in the dark in the winter, go to work in the dark and return with the street lights already on, their body does not receive an insufficient amount of energy necessary for active life. The result is discomfort, depression, health problems and even a slowdown in brain activity.

Science Daily published records of researchers studying the influence of the environment on humans. They collected weather data from NASA satellites to measure sunlight exposure across the United States. A team of researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham found a direct correlation between low exposure to sunlight and an increase in the number of people with depression. And among depressed people there was a high percentage of those who had cognitive impairment.

Scientists from a research group at the University of Washington have found that when there is a lack of sunlight, problems with the joints or lymphatic system occur. The lack of vitamins A and D, which the sun gives us, leads to insufficient calcium production, which, in turn, makes our bones fragile: just tripping and falling can cause many fractures. Israeli scientists from a medical clinic in Tel Aviv analyzed data from 51 thousand people over 50 years of age and came to the conclusion that walking in the sun protects better against fractures than taking calcium.

Researchers from the Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem have proven that in Greenland and Finland, with the onset of the polar night, the ovulation process completely stops in women. On the contrary, in the spring, with the return of a long photoperiod, the activity of the ovaries is significantly activated. This is also proven by the fact that more twins are born in these countries than in any other place in the world. Moreover, not only in polar countries, but in any other spring, women’s chance of getting pregnant increases sharply. Israeli scientists came to this conclusion based on a re-examination of more than 600 cases of infertility treatment.

In winter we sleep much more than in summer. And this is also connected with sunlight. During studies of the functions of the pineal gland in the human body, scientists have found that this small gland produces melatonin, which plays an important role in maintaining human biorhythms. At night, the level of melatonin in the blood increases sharply. The pineal gland increases it under the influence of the hypothalamus, which transmits information about how much sunlight falls on the retina. Less light means more melatonin and, accordingly, lower activity and better sleep.

In 2009, a symposium was held in Rotterdam to study the effects of sunlight on humans. Representatives from 22 countries (scientists, doctors, architects, teachers) presented the results of their research in this area. The main conclusion was about the unconditional influence of light on the physical, physiological and psychological state of people. Thus, American scientists have proven that the lack of sunlight in offices and shops directly affects decreased productivity. Schoolchildren living in apartments with windows facing north usually have a more difficult time studying. On the contrary, students in schools whose classrooms are located on the sunny side learn the material much more successfully.

By the way, Israeli scientists, in studies published in the journal JAMA, also argue that nothing can replace calcium obtained through solar exposure.